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Patents emerge as significant tech strategy

By Janet I. Tu

Seattle Times technology reporter

It seems not a week goes by these days without news of another patent battle or announcement: Microsoft reaching licensing agreements with various device manufacturers. Apple and various handset manufacturers filing suits and countersuits. Oracle suing Google over the use of Java in Android.

Not to mention barbed digs and jabs that company executives trade over blogs, Twitter and news releases.

One example:

After Microsoft and Samsung announced a patent-licensing agreement last month involving Google's Android operating system, Google issued a statement saying, in part: "This is the same tactic we've seen time and again from Microsoft. Failing to succeed in the smartphone market, they are resorting to legal measures to extort profit from others' achievements and hinder the pace of innovation."

The answer is that they're visible signs that technology companies' patent practices have evolved from using them to defend their own inventions to deploying them as a significant part of competitive strategies in the fast-growing mobile market.